Watching the Jefferson City Renegades play, one could almost be convinced MINK League baseball rewards teams that lose big and win close.
Jefferson City (9-11) knocked off the Ozark Generals (10-7) 9-8 Friday night at Vivion Field despite holding a 9-3 lead going into the sixth inning. The win ended an ugly five-game losing streak for the Renegades that contained, between Saturday and Thursday, losses of 14-2 and 20-5 to St. Joseph, 13-5 and 10-1 to Nevada, and a 4-3 loss to Sedalia.
The Renegades sit 2 games back of first-place Ozark but have gone 2-0 against the South division leader so far this season.
The win never looked like a foregone conclusion for Jefferson City. The Generals struck first with a three-run first inning that scored three different ways: a single and a wild pitch followed by two fielder's choices, a solo home run and three straight singles.
The Renegades answered back with four runs in their half of the first inning on a pair of two-run home runs by Mike Million and Avery Jennings.
"With our losing streak that we've had lately, we were going to do whatever it took to win this game," manager Mike DeMilia said after the game. "We don't care about tomorrow right now."
The lanky Jacob Voss, who came on with two outs in the seventh to complete one of his longest relief appearances of the season, was unable to find the strike zone consistently. He struck out five batters in seven outs but faced 14. Eight of those plate appearances against came in the top of the ninth inning, as Voss issued three walks and hit Nate DeChaine with a pitch.
"Usually when I get out there they expect me to come in and close the door," Voss said. "I haven't really blown a save yet this year, so they expect nothing less, and it's nice to have that trust, and nice to have a catcher in the back who you can throw a curveball in the dirt and you know he's going to block it, stuff like that."
A coaching visit to the mound settled the hard-throwing righty and he ended the game by inducing a 4-3 groundout.
"He made it interesting for sure but he was the best guy we had, so we had to stick with him," DeMilia said.
Million hit 2-for-4 with two home runs and three RBI, and Jennings added three hits and four RBI. Million aggravated an already jammed hand or wrist while playing Friday, and had it on ice by the end of the game. It didn't seem to affect his play at the plate or in the outfield, where he made an incredibly athletic defensive play on a fly ball he initially misread.
"Off the bat it started knuckling," Million said. "And he squared it up pretty good so I was like 'It's going to take off over my head and knuckle.' So I went to the left, and then went back to the right, and knew I had to jump for it because I was too far in. Instinct was to get up, and I got up pretty good."
His partner in left field Hunter Swift made a pair of catches at the wall in the seventh inning including one that looked like a robbed home run.
"Those guys, for one, they can run," DeMilia said. "So that helps a lot when you have guys that can go out there and make plays like that, when the other team hits the ball hard, that's huge for our pitching. Our pitching has struggled lately, so if we make a mistake and leave it over the middle of the plate, and can get an out on it, that's a big deal."